[When I have fears] - John Keats

[When I have fears] - John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be
before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
before high-piled books, in charact'ry,
hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain;
when I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
and think that I may never live to trace
their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
and when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
that I shall never look upon thee more,
never have relish in the faery power
of unreflecting love!—then on the shore
of the wide world I stand alone, and think,
till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.


1848 (1818), Life, Letters, and Literary Remains, of John Keats